Railroads: The Penn Central: Sidetracked Again

"The public," insists Interstate
Commerce Commission Chairman William H. Tucker, "should not have to
wait half a generation for a railroad merger to be decided." In the
case of the biggest railroad merger ever conceivedthe union of the
Pennsylvania and the New York Central into a gigantic 20,000-mile-long
Penn Centralthe public seems destined to wait at least that long.

The merger was first proposed in 1957, formally agreed on last year
after extensive ICC hearings. It seemed so imminent that Pennsy and
Central executives began working out the details of what jobs to...